Create a setting -- diesel punk awesomeness!

[PTTG]

I vote B by preference; specifically, the world has a dramatically different history and geography that just happens to have resulted in a world with diesel and English -- or at least phlogiston and Algnesh.

I feel this degree of separation gives us lots of freedom. If we want to have a special feature such as a resource or odd terrain, it can fit in easily.

But in general any interpretation of B or A is fine with me.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

I don't think we want to invent a completely new world, but I do think some of his other ideas deserve consideration and don't expand the scope to the point it gets out of control.

Is that definite? I was hoping for something at least somewhat exotic.

Originally Posted by tshiggins

B. Alt Earth, POD recent: With this option, the Great War resulted in destruction of large governments and empires, but an earlier POD meant the war shattered different empires. The most advanced nations with the largest colonial empires differed from those of our history. (With this option, we'd need to backtrack, a bit, to figure out which cultures other than the Europeans and their scions rose to the apex. We'd also need to devote attention to that earlier POD, and figure out what changes caused it. However, I have thought of an approach that gets us there with just a couple of rounds of voting.)

B. Alt Earth seems interesting. I'm not voting any of the space options because we've already had several space setting threads, but I'm sad about not being able to bring in other species into the setting.
As for the shattered empires being different ones, I am indeed hoping that the difference will not be purely cosmetic. Saxon Commonwealth and/or Norman Empire, Siberian Anarchist Alliance, United Arab Caliphate, Aztec Triple Alliance, etc.

[(E)]

A or B work for me. I am generally opposed to the space options. Though a super high altitude or a near orbit aspect could be worth exploring.

A subaquatic aspect might also be worth considering. The Zealandia continental theory that was put forward recently might be a good starting point. The image of a submersible aircraft carrier or battleship may suit dieselpunk.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Jet Engines don't have to worry about the propellant sealed in a can. I'd argue that big chemical rockets do fit though; Goddard and von Braun were both active in the era, and it explains why the war was that bad, even though nukes are off the table.

I prefer D with rockets that aren't magic, A otherwise.

Goddard's rockets had durations of seconds. The Peenemunde group basically invented the turbo-pump and did it about the same time several others were inventing the jet engine. Interplanetary scale chemical rockets are a post dieselpunk technology.

[ericthered]

B. I vote for B.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

You can have regular interplanetary or even interstellar travel along with diesels if you want. There are multiple mentions of literal diesel engines (big 16 cylinder ones) in First Lensman which was written c. 1947.

However, what is required to do that is some form of superscience that is not applicable to ground and air travel. Chemical rockets are not actually part of the fiction of the era. Before the invention of the turbo-pump it was assumed that you could never get enough fuel into a liquid fuel rocket engine and without the turbo-pump they were almost certainly right.

As an example of the problem the turbo-pumps of the Shuttle's main engines are utterly ridiculous pieces of technology. They weigh 750 lbs (half the engines total weight) and generate 75,000 horsepower. Jet engines are small and simple by comparison and you probably need something bigger and more powerful for interplanetary travel.

So neutralize inertia or use cavorite or whatever but big chemical rockets are incompatible with dieselpunk.

I think this is a good discussion and should feed into what we decide to do for tech.

However, I don't see a vote, here, Fred. :)

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

I think this is a good discussion and should feed into what we decide to do for tech.

However, I don't see a vote, here, Fred. :)

Sometimes I'm only acting as a technical advisor. :)

The "human" end of dieselpunk has no particular constraints beyond somebody ending up with grease all over his manipulatory appendages and I have no strong opinions of how to do this.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Is that definite? I was hoping for something at least somewhat exotic.

(SNIP)

I acknowledge that I exercised some editorial control, here. I think it's a lot to ask of this particular design methodology to try to re-create an entire timeline for humanity, just so we can wind up with a super-exotic dieselpunk setting.

We could accomplish much the same thing with option B, or develop our exotic cultures on Mars or Venus if we go with option E. However, that still gives us a fair amount of existing human history to work with.

Moreover, the remnant polities will almost certainly start to develop deviating (maybe even deviant) cultures if they find themselves sufficiently isolated, so we can approach some of those ideas, that way.

Additionally (as you noted, yourself) since Shattered Empires includes a lot of (supposedly) de-populated wasteland, that offers the opportunity to develop variant ways of living, too. We might see localized potlach economies, maybe, or highly integrated communes, or even the emergence of religious communities (of one sort or another) that see the conflagration as good reason to reject modernity.

(Honestly, I think the latter is practically a certainty, although I don't think they could successfully compete, in the long run.)

Because of how we voted, the Great War turns out to have been a watershed event in human history, even more significant than the fall of Rome, really, and we can move in a lot of different directions. So, the exotic developments may be taking place now, and need not have taken place in the past.

I'll tally the votes in about nine hours.

[Emerald Cat]

I vote B, Alt Earth, recent Point of Departure.

[Flaco76]

Originally Posted by Emerald Cat

I vote B, Alt Earth, recent Point of Departure.

I also vote for this